Personal Liberty
Personal Liberty includes the right to control your own body, and make your own choices about how you live. Freedom of Speech, Belief, and Lifestyle The government should not favor any religion, belief, or philosophy over others, and should not restrict freedom of speech or of the press, or the freedom to practice any peaceful religion, belief philosophy, or lifestyle. Equal Freedom People of any race, ethnicity, minority opinion, gender, or lifestyle should have the same legal rights as everyone else. Laws should not discriminate against any group, and should also not favor one group over another. Privacy The right to privacy, as implied by the Bill of Rights (Articles 4 and 9), should be upheld. Reproductive Rights Each individual should have the right to control his or her own body, including making choices about family planning. The decision of whether or not to have an abortion is an extremely sensitive one, and should remain chiefly with the woman and her doctor, not the government. Food and Medical Decisions Each individual should have the right to make decisions regarding what foods or medicines to put into his or her body, which medical treatments to use, and when to stop treatment. Freedom from Crime One of the basic functions of government is to stop crime. In order to use police resources wisely, the government should distinguish between victimless crimes and crimes in which there is a victim. Murder, bodily attack, kidnapping, vandalism, robbery, and fraud all involve victims. However, gambling, pornography, and use of tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana in private are victimless crimes, if no one is forced to participate. Police resources should focus on crimes that involve victims. It is usually impractical to enforce victimless crime laws. For example, if many people wish to use a particular food, drug, or beverage that is prohibited by law, the demand creates a black market. Since the courts will not handle black market disputes, rival gangs then settle disputes with violence. Furthermore, the black market price becomes so high that people commit robberies in order to obtain enough money to afford the artificially high price of black market products. The harm of many prohibition laws, then, outweighs the benefit. Therefore, government should only prohibit particular foods, drugs, beverages, etc. if there is overwhelming evidence of a public benefit in doing so. Freedom from crime includes the right to self-defense. Since criminals can always find ways to obtain weapons, it is unwise to unilaterally disarm honest citizens, since police cannot be everywhere. Law-abiding individuals should have the right to own hand-held weapons, including rifles and pistols. This right should only be restricted when there are compelling and demonstrably effective reasons of public safety. For example, government may restrict children and convicted criminals from access to weapons. Freedom from Involuntary Servitude There should be no military draft, which is a form of slavery. A military draft is often used as a means of forcing American soldiers to fight unpopular wars in far off countries. When the military is restricted to its proper role of defending U.S. territory, then military duty is a patriotic service. See also * Economic Liberty * Limited Government * Social Responsibility Category:Platform Category:Personal Liberty